Prosecutors have offered to reduce a negligent homicide charge to a misdemeanor, after obtaining approval from the victim's family, Cascade County Attorney Josh Racki said Tuesday.

Jaraslav Kleberc, a Canadian citizen, was charged last April with negligent homicide, tampering with evidence and failure to remain at an accident scene after allegedly making an illegal turn that left one man dead on Interstate-15.

Charging documents allege Kleberc, driving a semi-truck carrying lumber, was traveling southbound on I-15, turned into an emergency-vehicle only access turnoff and started heading north, where Marvin Knutson, also heading north, crashed into the trailer and was killed.

The plea deal offered by prosecutors on Monday would amend the negligent homicide charge to careless causing of death, a misdemeanor, and recommend he be sentenced to 10 years probation. As parties work to document more specifics, such as the circumstances of the crash scene and whether or not Kleberc himself will accept the deal, the judge suspended Tuesday's change of plea until a future date.

After the hearing, Racki said his office has been in contact with Knutson's family, who has approved of the plea deal.

"They are satisfied with it," he said.

The difference between negligent homicide and careless cause of death, Racki said, is "gross negligence versus ordinary negligence." Ultimately, the incident that led to Knutson's death was a traffic accident, a fatal accident which Racki said happens on a fairly regular basis. Racki said there's contrast between this and the recent Roy Scott case, where Scott was convicted of negligent homicide for reportedly squeezing his wife to death while trying to stop her from fighting him.

Judge John Kutzman on Tuesday was not willing to accept the plea deal while certain questions remain unanswered. Kleberc has claimed in an unreleased document that he did not see the wreckage from Knutson's vehicle as he kept driving on April 15. Racki declined to comment on whether that was reasonable given the circumstances of the case.

"The attorneys know far more than I do at this point about the evidence in this case," he said during the hearing. "I am virtually in the dark about what the incident scene looked like right after this happened.

"I have serious questions about the sequence of events, whether there were witnesses, surveillance footage... what it looked like, whether he saw it, or should have seen it, or didn't see it."

According to court documents, the fatal collision is estimated to have taken place around 10 p.m. Authorities believe Knutson was not able to avoid a collision with the trailer as it made the turn to head northbound. He was declared dead at the scene.

After heading north from the scene, Montana Highway Patrol troopers were able to track Kleberc's truck to Armington Junction, east of Great Falls. The affidavit states Kleberc stopped in Hardin to ask some local farmers for assistance shifting his load. They noticed a red paint transfer and damages to the side of the trailer, and when they asked Kleberc about it, he replied he had "hit a deer," according to charging documents.

Authorities arrested Kleberc several days later in Katy, Texas, where he was scheduled to deliver his load of lumber, according to court documents. Prosecutors said in court documents that an investigation found he had changed trailers on the semi and put the license plates from the older trailer on the new one.

Kutzman also said he would need clear confirmation that Knutson's family has agreed to the plea agreement.

"I'm pretty much going to have to hear it for myself somehow," he said.

Prosecutors and Kleberc's defense had originally set the change of plea for Tuesday, but Kutzman decided to suspend the matter as Kleberc was clearly wrestling with his decision on whether or not to take the deal. He would still be pleading guilty to tampering with evidence, which is a felony, and Kleberc's biggest worry regarding that probation sentence was that he could not return to Europe for 10 years, he said. Kleberc's attorney said he still planned to argue for a lighter sentence than the prosecutor's recommendation.

"It is a very significant decision," Kutzman said. "I have a hard time believing you have ever made a decision in your life that is more important than the one you are considering now."

Knutson's family is also taking Kleberc and Kings Cargo Express, LTD, the trucking company that employed him, to civil court, claiming negligence by both the driver and the company. No dollar amount has been specified in documents filed so far. Both defendants have denied the allegations in the civil case, which is currently on hold pending the outcome of the criminal case.